a key figure of her campaign, veronika tsepkalo, has reportedly fled the country for safety reasons.osteleva is director of the global europe centre at the university of kent, originally from belarus and has just cast her vote in today's presidential election. i think you were in minsk a few weeks ago as well. welcome to bbc news. alexander lu kashenko weeks ago as well. welcome to bbc news. alexander lukashenko has been in powerfor a long time. i suppose the odds are that he will remain in power but how much of the challenges at this time round? hello, yes, simply because of the levels of mobilisation are astounding. i'm standing outside the embassy in london. it's incredible, i'm looking at the crowd of people, how they are cheering everyone coming out of the embassy, the way they voted, an exit poll registering every vote that comes out here and what is amazing is that the queues, it's about 2000 people long and it basically passes so people long and it basically passes so many streets and the crowds and the peaceful movement of voters, also people in the demonstrations, it's incr

a key figure of her campaign, veronika tsepkalo, has reportedly fled the country for safety reasons.nternational institute for strategic studies, who served as a british diplomat in belarus. hejoins us from south london. president lukashenko won 80% in 2010, there were riots after that, what is he predicted to have won this can we trust it? you this time and can we trust it? you are right, the results will show a sweeping victory and they are sweeping victory and they are sweeping lies. this result will be falsified as previous ones were and in fact we have direct evidence from brave people who have leaked details of what they have been told to announce ina of what they have been told to announce in a few hours' time, probably 68—70% of the vote. other people bravely have reported that the result they have been told to show locally are completely untrue, some voting stations are already showing that more than 100% of people voted. the question is what happens next. all indications are that the courageous tsikhanouskaya has won popular support, she has run a superb campaign focused on

a key figure of her campaign, veronika tsepkalo, has reportedly fled the country for safety reasons.been speaking with professor elena korosteleva, director of the global europe centre at the university of kent, who is originally from belarus and has this afternoon cast her vote in the election. i started by asking how much of a threat was ms tikhanovskaya to president lukashenko‘s hopes of a sixth term in office. the challenge is massive simply because the levels of mobilisation are absolutely astounding. i am standing just outside the embassy in london. it's just incredible looking at the crowd of people, how they are cheering everyone coming out of the embassy, looking at the way they voted. an exit poll registering every single vote that comes out here. what is amazing is that the queue is about 2000 people long, it has passed so many streets and the crowd and the peaceful mood of voters and those demonstrating, it's just incredibly peaceful but also wanting change. president lukashenko won with 80% back in 2010. there was civil unrest there, demonstrations, do you think he will